Written by

COLLEGE HILL - Former high school football star Everett Horne couldn't outrun two senior citizens patrolling their neighborhood for residential break-ins.

Horne, 19, who had 1,827 yards and 30 touchdowns and was Division IV second-team all-state at North College Hill as a senior in 2008, was arrested with his brother and another man thanks to Jim Bodmer, 71, and Don Baechle, 84.

The two longtime College Hill residents heard a call go out on the police radio of a break-in Dec. 1 on Wittekind Terrace. Knowing the neighborhood like the back of their hands, they figured the perpetrators would flee out of the back of the home and run through the backyard onto Reid Avenue.

And that's exactly what happened, they said.

"We called in and said we were going to Reid Avenue and pretty soon they came running down the backyard," recalled Bodmer on Tuesday. "We called their description in over the radio and the rest is history. (The police) caught one under a pile of leaves. They found the other one in a garbage can, and I don't know where they found the other one."

What police also found may be the break in a string of home break-ins over the past month in a half. Police wrote in court records that Horne; his brother Elliott, 22; and friend David Frye, 21, all of College Hill, are responsible for another dozen burglaries. So far, they are charged with the Wittekind Terrace burglary but are under investigation for the others.

Based on that information, the men are being held on high bonds at the Hamilton County jail while authorities continue their investigation.

Everett Horne had signed a national letter of intent in spring 2009 to play football as a scholarship athlete at the University of Cincinnati, but he never made it to campus.

Police recovered dozens of stolen items with a recent search warrant, and residents from throughout College Hill have been coming into the District 5 police station to retrieve their property, mainly laptop computers and jewelry totaling about $5,000, said Sgt. Jason Voelkerding.

One of their alleged victims is a football coach who was a mentor to Horne, he added.

"He lost two laptops," Voelkerding said. "We found his necklace at a pawn shop at Cash America, and he'll be getting that back, too."

In each case, the perpetrators smashed out the glass in a back door. Then, someone reached in and unlocked it to enter.

"They would go through the house real quick and take anything of value they could quickly flee with," the police sergeant said. "They took it back to a central place and tried to sell it."

Bodmer and the 30 other Citizens on Patrol volunteers serve as eyes and ears for police, but do not make arrests or otherwise intervene directly.

College Hill's patrol has flourished into one of the largest and most active ones in the city, Voelkerding said. Bodmer also has established patrols in other city neighborhoods: North Avondale, Spring Grove Village, Clifton and Mount Airy, and in suburban Hamilton County: Forest Park and North College Hill.

"Jim's donated in excess of 10,000 hours over the last 10 years," Voelkerding said. "I don't know what the exact value of that is to the city, but it is obviously a lot. They have given us a lot of information that has led to a lot of arrests over the years from every aspect of crime you can imagine. They are a good asset to the Police Department and the neighborhood."

"We would rather have boring days where we don't see anything because there's nothing happening," Bodmer said. "But it's nice to be able to help in our own neighborhood. District 5 is a fantastic bunch of policeman. They appreciate what we do."

Each case they help to break, each bad guy they help to take off the street, is one is a step toward reclaiming what once was a bustling business district, he said.

"It's happened all over the city. Because of the demise of the business districts, we are in a Catch-22 situation," Bodmer said. "We are trying to get more businesses in. We just got a new wine store in that is going to be fantastic. But there are still too many empty storefronts; and when you have empty storefronts, you have too many young kids hanging around, and it's a crime triangle. We would like to see College Hill be a destination place for people to come to and businesses to move to."